


Time for a Wedding

by ali_aliska



Category: Supernatural
Genre: But It's Plot Relevant, Crack, Ends on a Hopeful Note, First Half of This is, Gabriel Has a Crush, Gabriel Lives, Gabriel's POV, I swear, M/M, Other Season 5 Characters Make Brief Appearances, Unrequited Gabriel/Sam Winchester, set in season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 06:31:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11098869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ali_aliska/pseuds/ali_aliska
Summary: The Apocalypse is nigh and the stage is set for Sam to say that magical "yes" and unite himself and Lucifer in unholy matrimony. Will no one be brave enough to stop this abomination of a wedding?!Set in a Gabriel Lives AU, where he joins up Team Free Will after the Elysian Fields showdown.Written for a personal writing challenge for "Gabriel" & "Wedding" prompts.





	Time for a Wedding

**Author's Note:**

> The beginning of this is meant to be indulgent crack - but hey, it's Gabriel, I'm pretty sure his whole mind runs like a bad soap opera, so I feel it's basically in character.
> 
> First time trying my hand at actual writing and definitely first time posting a fic online. Con crit is welcome, but please, be gentle!

The church, although it was tall and imposing on the outside like these archaic structures tended to be (built during humanity’s overdramatic gothic phase), still looked like a regular building to the unsuspecting eye. However, the inside of the church currently hosted what one could only call the most monumental, the most evil, the most _monumentally evil_ event of the millennia. 

If one were brave enough to enter this building and witness the event, they would see something no good man should ever see with his own two eyes. One side of the church was packed to the brim with bodies - all black-eyed cretins, filling in the pews and spitting on the consecrated ground like the trespassing demons that they were. The stench of sulfur permeated the air, so strong that it would make even the most iron of stomachs curl in on themselves and attempt to escape out of their own bodies. 

The other side of the church? Occupied by two men - one old and grouchy, with a cap covering up his balding head. Definitely looked like a guy who’d say "Idjits!" unironically. The other man showed even less character and emotional range than the tan trench coat he was wearing. Mostly because he had a metaphorical stick up his ass and probably just needed to get laid. Overall - barely an improvement on the side filled with the filthy demons. 

The inside of the church itself was decorated with blood lilies and white roses, half of which were well into the process of wilting and decomposing. They were obviously used as a metaphor for the unbridled _abomination_ unfolding below them. 

For at the altar at the front of the church stood four men and a woman. One man and the woman were obviously there to serve as the best man and the matron of dishonor, standing on their respective sides. Meg was the woman’s name and she was a demon so vile, flowers would wilt in her presence and puppies would cry and run away. The best man? Meh, nothing to write home about, but if he had any accomplishments to his name, he was a man who could definitely take death by taco like a champ.

The priest stood in the middle of the five behind the pulpit and— wait, was it Zachariah?! Dammit, somehow that was worse than all the demons crawling around the church. 

And in the middle of this unholy combination of demons, annoying humans, and the smarmiest, most pretentious angel in the entire garrison, stood two men. 

The one next to the demon Meg wore a suit so red, it looked like it was dyed with the blood of the innocent (spoilers, it definitely was). Where his skin was visible, it peeled from the body of his unwilling host, but that grotesque visage held no candle to the sheer _evil_ contained in the eyes of the man. Some called him Morning Star, some the Devil, and some? Some just called him Luci because he was an annoying prick at the best of times and Dad should’ve definitely put him away behind several more locks.

The devil’s bride (groom?) stood next to him in a suit so white and pure it looked like it was made from the wings of an angel (spoilers, they probably did pluck some poor bastard’s wings to get that suit made). The man, with an expression so sorrowful it could make kittens weep, was the only source of light in this cesspool of darkness and soullessness. He stood like a beacon of hope and goodness and love and all those other amazing things that made life good. Of course, no man so good and pure (and handsome) would ever be a willing participant in such an evil event, so this man, with his shiny floppy hair and puppy dog eyes, was chained in place and held against his will, to be married off in unholy matrimony to the devil himself, who only wanted him for his body. 

Zachariah the priest was blathering on about “in sickness and in health, in good times and in apocalypse, which shall be upon us in a day or two…” and the ceremony was proceeding as planned. It seemed that there was no one who was brave or strong enough to stop this madness, to rescue the handsome bride (groom!) in white. Would no one be the hero?

The evil smile on Lucifer’s face grew even more evil as Zachariah asked him if he would take “Sam Winchester to be his demony-wedded vessel and/or bride?” 

The “yes” that slithered out of the devil’s mouth was the foulest “yes” ever uttered since the invention of the word.

But that particular “yes” wasn’t the one that truly counted. No, it was lovely, innocent Sam who had no choice but to continue with this demonic wedding and seal the deal with the devil.

Zach’s smarmy face turned downright giddy when he asked Sam if he would take Lucifer to be his lawfully-evil husband. The entire church held its collective demony breath as Sam parted his sinfully gorgeous lips and— 

“Do not utter a syllable, Sam, my love, for I am here to rescue you!” 

The man who burst in through the doors of the church with that declaration on his tongue was the very picture of grace and strength and _courage_. He rode in on a white horse, sword in hand, with three pairs of golden wings unfurling behind him. 

There was a collective gasp among the demons and humans alike and Lucifer’s face became even more unattractive when it was contorted into that enraged scowl. It was only Sam’s reaction that mattered, however, who looked simultaneously hopeful and devastated.

“Gabriel, no! Don’t be a hero! Lucifer is too strong for you, you can’t win!” he declared desperately. “I— I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I lost you, Gabriel…” Those last words were whispered with tears shimmering in Sammy’s breathtaking eyes. 

But Gabriel felt no fear. He dismounted his horse with the grace of an angel (an _archangel_ ) and strutted down the aisle with his sword held firmly at his side.

“Unhand my Sam, you foul beast! His body will never belong to you!” 

Just as Gabriel anticipated, Lucifer began ranting on and on about how he was the superior angel and that his victory was assured, but Gabriel did not listen. Instead, he prepared himself and when the right moment presented itself (Lucifer was declaring himself to be the strongest of them all), Gabriel struck with unparalleled precision and overwhelming force. 

The sword cutting through Lucifer’s vessel and the final flicker of light in his eyes was one of the greatest sights in the world, second only to the relief and love reflected on Sam’s face in that moment. 

Gabriel pulled the sword out of Lucifer’s now prone vessel and swung it mightily to destroy the chains bounding his beloved, freeing him from this foul nightmare once and for all. He could hear the demons scattering in fear behind him, but he paid them no mind as he took a hold of his beautiful, smiling Sam and swung him into his arms like the bride that he was (almost about to be). 

“You did it, Gabriel, you saved me,” Sam whispered to him and the gratitude was obvious in his expressive puppy dog eyes. 

“Of course I saved you, Sam. I will _always_ be your hero.” 

Sam practically swooned and Gabriel carried him down the aisle and over the threshold of the church. That was as far as he got however, before he snapped his fingers and the two of them disappeared and reappeared in Gabriel’s absolutely most favorite place in the whole wide world - the heart-shaped bed in the best honeymoon suite of the swankiest hotel in Las Vegas. 

He gently laid Sam out on the massive bed covered in red silk sheets and lowered himself over his beloved, who smiled up at him with all the love one mortal body could contain. 

“I love you, Gabriel,” Sam whispered and that was all the prompting Gabriel needed to lower his lips to Sam’s and finally kiss him. 

“Gabriel…” Sam moaned between the lust-filled kisses and all the archangel could do was encourage him.

“That’s right, Sammy, say my name…”

“Gabriel… Gabriel…”

“That’s it…”

“Gabriel…”  
  
“GABRIEL!”

“Wha—”

The dreary hotel room came into crystal clear focus around him as Gabriel, in a flail of limbs, fell off the bed and landed squarely on his ass on the moldy hotel room carpet. Breathing heavily from the abrupt change of scenery, he looked up to see Castiel standing over him, arms crossed and a pinched expression on his face.

“Gabriel, I was calling your name for over a minute, but you were not responding,” Castiel declared in his usual monotone, but then his eyes narrowed as he took Gabriel’s disheveled form on the floor. “Were you—” he paused, “ _daydreaming_?”

Slowly getting himself into an upright sitting position, Gabriel harrumphed “Of course not. Ha, daydreaming. Where do you even come up with these things, little brother?” 

Finally standing up, Gabriel patted Castiel’s shoulder and added “I was just taking a nap, that’s all. Can’t get any sleep with all of you knuckle-heads crammed into one hotel room.”

Castiel’s eyes remained narrowed, momentarily confused, but then he seemed to let the whole issue go. “The Winchesters have already packed their supplies and are waiting for us. We must keeping moving, otherwise Lucifer’s demons will catch up with us.”

“Please,” Gabriel rolled his eyes, “like I can’t handle a bunch of demons. I say we just let them find us.”

The disapproving tilt of Castiel’s eyebrows told the archangel how the other angel felt about that. “You know why we can’t, Gabriel. We have a plan and if we are ever to have a chance at defeating Lucifer, we must continue on the path decided and stay, as Dean says, _under the radar_.”

“Fine, fine. I know that… I just hate being crammed in that stupid matchbox of a car with you three.”

“I understand, Gabriel. Traveling by car certainly is— confining and slow, but neither one of us can use our powers at the moment. Otherwise the—“

“Yes, Castiel, otherwise the big bad demons will track us down. I _know_. Just give me a minute, will ya?”

Castiel nodded in the affirmative, told him that he would be waiting outside with the Winchesters, and then walked out, carefully closing the hotel door behind him. 

Finally alone, Gabriel let out a big breath and ran his hand through his hair distractedly. Damn, that was one hell of a daydream. Sure, he daydreamed a lot (what else was he supposed to do, stuck in a damn car with the Winchesters and Castiel for hours on end?), but it usually didn’t take Castiel yelling at him for a whole minute to snap him out of it.

The jarring crash back into reality (literally, given that his ass ended up on the floor) still made him feel off-kilter. Reality always paled in comparison to fantasies and this was no exception. Reality wasn’t colorful and dramatic, there were no white horses and heroes. There were no silky smooth beds and declarations of love. 

Reality was drab hotel rooms, shitty food, the impending apocalypse, and a host of demons that followed on their heels, leaving behind nothing but death and destruction.

Reality also meant that killing the villain wasn’t so simple either. Honestly, Gabriel didn’t know whether their plan to beat Lucifer would even work. It was a long-shot at best, a suicide mission at worst. Reality could very well end up with Lucifer being the one with the archangel sword in his hand, cutting Gabriel open and watching the flicker of light die out in his eyes. 

Reality was dark, gray and cold, and rarely ended well for anyone involved. Gabriel would’ve been okay with all of that, if it weren’t for one other very simple fact. Reality was also where Gabriel was desperately in love with Sam Winchester, but that love was never and would never be reciprocated. 

If asked when it was that Gabriel fell in love with the younger Winchester, the archangel wouldn’t have a proper answer. There wasn’t a single “ah ha!” moment, no metaphorical heart jumping out of Gabriel’s chest to tell him that he was in love. However, even before he joined “Team Free Will” after almost getting killed by Lucifer in that slaughter-fest in The Elysian Fields hotel, Gabriel had a— call it a _vested interest_ in Sam. It may not have been love, but Gabriel was compelled to save Sam from himself, even if it meant using unorthodox methods. However, even Dean dying 200 or so times didn’t drive the point home - the brothers still sacrificed themselves and the whole world for each other and here they were, reaping the consequences of that in the form of the upcoming apocalypse. 

After joining up with them (to the reluctance of everyone, himself included, but it was the apocalypse and all) and spending an ungodly amount of time with them, crammed in that car or in a moldy hotel room, it seemed like Sam just _grew on him_. May be it was the way his stupid floppy hair fell into his eyes or the way he would light up when a piece of research clicked for him and a case started to make sense. May be it was the kindness he showed perfect strangers and an unyielding sense of fairness that drove his decisions and interactions with others. Or may be it was the way Sam was willing to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders and take on the responsibility for everything that has transpired, regardless of the fact that Sam was but a small pawn in a chess game played by beings far more powerful (and far more culpable) that he was.

It wasn’t Gabriel, but rather Sam, who was the hero on the white horse, willing to ride into a church full of demons and save the world. And how could anyone not fall in love with that? 

However, Gabriel did not expect a happy ending. Not in this reality. He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and then, realizing that he probably already took too long, standing there in the middle of room contemplating his stupid life choices, he hurried out the door.

The Winchesters were leaning against the car, facing each other and seemingly engrossed in an animate discussion. Little brother Castiel was stoically standing off to the side and listening politely, but not currently contributing to the conversation. It didn’t look like any of them noticed him stepping out of the hotel room, so Gabriel took a moment to indulge himself and observe Sam.

The man, for once, appeared more relaxed, likely due to the full eight hours of sleep he got the night before (a rare occurrence for all of them). He was looking at Dean, eyes squinting slightly from facing the afternoon sun, and there was a smile on his face. Sam’s smiles were not frequent these days, but nevertheless, Gabriel had all of them catalogued and this one was his favorite, although it was one he would never have the honor of experiencing. The “Dean” smile was reserved for the big brother Winchester and that smile, whether at Dean’s typical antics or just because Dean was nearby, was able to somehow contain all that little-brother hero-worship and all the years of experience, loyalty, and love shared between the brothers. 

Gabriel saw Castiel move closer to Sam as he made some comment or another on whatever it was Sam and Dean were discussing. Sam turned to him, and yup, there was the “You’re no Dean, but I still love you” smile. Still genuine in its affection, but it didn’t quite communicate the all-encompassing love and devotion of the previous smile. 

Deciding that he should stop being a creepy stalker, Gabriel cleared his throat to announce his presence and walked over to the trio.

The lump in his throat appeared despite his best efforts to will it away when Sam’s eyes turned to him and Gabriel saw the third type of smile emerge. It was the type of smile one gave a stranger or a particularly annoying coworker; a forced smile that one gave only because societal niceties said you should. There was no affection or fondness behind it, only the politeness of a good man going through the motions. 

“It’s about time, princess. What were you doing in there, powdering your nose?” Dean snapped at Gabriel, which thankfully broke him out of his maudlin thoughts and prompted him to give the older Winchester the finger.

Without much additional fuss, they all piled into the muscle car, with Gabriel and Cas crammed in the back seat. In order to avoid hearing any of them complain, Dean immediately popped a classic rock cassette into the player and the four of them spent the next five hours driving down Interstate 55, listening to some rock star or another sing about love and heartbreak. Gabriel chose to ignore the fact that he could relate to far too many of the songs. 

Once the car was running on its last fumes and the four of them were one bad-timed comment away from killing each other in the cramped space, Dean finally pulled off the interstate and into the gas station that looked like every other small-town rural gas station they had the displeasure to patronize in the last three weeks on the road. The brothers headed inside to grab an assortment of disgusting gas station food, with Castiel following close on their heels like an obedient puppy. Gabriel knew this would be his only opportunity in the next however many hours, so he got out of the car and stretched out his cramping legs. He may have been an all-powerful archangel, but even godly deities got cramps after sitting in that stupid car for hours on end. 

Just as he was in the middle of a particularly good stretch, he saw Sam hurry out of the building with a paper bag in his hand. He approached, cocking his head slightly to the left in a sign of confusion as he saw Gabriel’s less-than-graceful stretching routine.

“What?” Gabriel almost blushed under the scrutiny. “I get cramps in this car of yours.” After a beat, he asked “Where’s Knuckle-head One and Knuckle-head Two?” 

Sam leaned against the car next to him and glanced over to the decrepit gas station building. “Dean was trying to explain the merits of pie to Cas and I have no idea how, but _somehow_ they got into an argument over it. I hightailed it out of there when I saw them standing in the middle of the aisle, rigorously debating pie filling choices.” 

Gabriel snorted out a laugh as he looked over to the gas station as well, easily picturing the two idiots arguing in there over nothing. He heard the rustling of the paper bag next to him and assumed Sam was going to use the time to quickly scarf down whatever fresh food he was able to find in the store. However, after a second or two of no further movement at his side, Gabriel looked over and saw that Sam was holding something out to him. 

It was a Snickers bar.

“I— uh— I got this for you. I know you technically don’t need to eat, but I do know that you like sweets, and since you haven’t been able to use your powers— I just thought you’d like it so I grabbed it for you.”

Still not entirely sure whether this was one of his day dreams, Gabriel’s eyes remained glued to the candy bar in Sam’s hand while the other man was speaking, but when Sam stopped, Gabriel looked back up at him and okay, yes, this was _definitely_ a day dream.

Sam was smiling at him, but it wasn’t the “I’m only smiling because it’s polite” smile. It was tentative and may be not as bright as the one Castiel usually got, but this was definitely the second type of Sam’s smiles. The one that meant that Gabriel wasn’t just a useful tool that could help them beat Lucifer and stop the apocalypse; rather, that may be, just may be, he was someone Sam cared about. 

Gabriel’s mental reevaluation of his whole world view dragged on for a few seconds too many and Sam fidgeted in the ensuing awkward silence.

“Um, it’s okay if you don’t want it, I’m sure Dean would—“

Before another word could come out of Sam’s mouth, Gabriel grabbed the candy bar out of his hand and clutched it protectively against his chest.

“That loudmouth is not going anywhere near my candy bar.” 

Sam’s smile grew just a tad bit wider and suddenly, there were butterflies in Gabriel’s stomach. _Goddamn it, his stomach was not some botanical garden!_

The younger Winchester, completely oblivious to Gabriel’s predicament, continued, “Good, because God knows Dean doesn’t need anymore junk food in his diet as it is.”

Looking down at the candy bar once more and then back up at Sam, Gabriel produced a smile of his own. “Thanks, Sam-quatch. Appreciate it.” 

Sam replied with a easy “No problem” and then bit into his own apple which he also unearthed from the paper bag. The silence that ensued between them now wasn’t awkward and Gabriel couldn’t help but revel in it. 

So may be a candy bar wasn’t some grand declaration of love. And may be Sam would never look at him and smile at him the way he looked and smiled at Dean. This was enough. It would have to be.

Because with every hour, they were heading closer and closer to the end and there was a good chance that the final battle would end bloody for all of them. If and when they faced Lucifer, Gabriel already knew, long before this moment, that he would stand by Sam’s side. And may be, just may be, he would get the chance to be Sam’s hero and to save him, even if it meant sacrificing himself. Now however, knowing that he had some small part of Sam’s affection to himself, he thought that making that sacrifice would be just a little bit less painful.

Despite his darker thoughts, Gabriel smiled to himself and bit into the candy bar, as the two of them waited for Castiel and Dean, during this short reprieve, at this forgotten gas station in the middle of nowhere, before they would all have to get back on the road to their destiny.


End file.
